The Significance of the Early Republic

Abstract

Until very recently the period from the American Revolution to the election of Andrew Jackson was the most neglected if not the most despised period of American history. Although this has not always been the case, certainly during the past generation or so-during the golden age of historical reinterpretation following World War II-the early republic was slighted and scorned. While historians during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s were engaged in major reevaluations of most other periods of American history, they virtually ignored the early republic. And the period consequently developed a reputation for dreariness and for being the most boring part of American history to study and teach. This is a curious situation, and it is not easily explained. The period after all seems to have an immediate and palpable importance for all Americans. During the half century following the Revolution our political institutions were established, political parties were developed, and a political economy was worked out. It is the period when American nationalism is generally thought to have been created. All in all, so much of significance occurred in this period of the early republic that its neglect is puzzling. Neglect may be the wrong word to describe the situation. It is not that no attention has been paid to the early republic in the past forty years. Far from it. There have been many books and articles written, but little has come of them. Unlike the antebellum period or the Populist era, there have been no major attempts made to reinterpret the period, to bring the many monographs together, and to erect overarching compelling syntheses. Ten or fifteen years ago there were